Blog

Engaging the Engagers: Succeeding in the New Era with Better Leadership and Management

November 9, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Peter C. Atherton, P.E.

“Literally nothing a CEO or CHRO does will authentically, structurally, and sustainably change the value of your organization more.”

This is a statement from the recently released book written by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, and Jim Harter, PhD, Chief Workplace Scientist for Gallup, based on their research and more than 30 years of data, to help workplaces thrive and produce something the whole world wants.

What they are referencing is “improving your ratio of great to lousy managers”. The key to this, however, rests solely with leaders.

It’s Both

To succeed today in any position of authority we need to both lead and manage.

Leadership is a role to establish a clear vision for a mission that inspires others to follow and then enable achievement through times of both conflict and harmony.

Shaping Our Future Generations by Becoming a STEM Author

November 2, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Tiffani Teachey

“If they don’t bring you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
~ Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm

There is value in encouraging children to learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). As an engineer for 16 years, I have always enjoyed mentoring and speaking to the youth, presenting “Engineering Is Fun!” At the beginning of my presentations, I ask the children, “Who has met an engineer?” At times, there are no or few hands that are raised.

I present on the various types of engineers, what engineers do, and what children can do to prepare to become an engineer, alongside hands-on engineering activities. I then ask the same question after the presentation, “Who has met an engineer?” and all of the children’s hands go up. It is then that I realize that I have planted a seed to shape the next generation through STEM and the importance of representation in STEM careers.

Meet Jeff Perry, MBA – the New Host of the Engineering Career Coach Podcast

October 26, 2020 By EMI

The Engineering Management Institute is thrilled to have Jeff Perry, MBA, leadership coach and founder of More Than Engineering as the new host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast – a podcast dedicated to helping engineers create extraordinary careers and lives.

Jeff decided to transition in his engineering career towards coaching and training because he saw the amazing difference it makes in the lives of individuals and teams. He finds more joy in helping others be their best selves by developing people, rather than developing projects and services.

His advice to engineers is to not buy into classic engineering stereotypes that can sometimes limit your beliefs about yourself.

“Engineering is a key component to economic growth and world-wide innovation.”
~ Jeff Perry, MBA

Jeff’s goal as host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast is to bring engineers the latest in personal development ideas from experts all over the world to allow them to improve their personal lives and careers.

9 Survival Tips for Engineering Students

October 26, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Michael Turner

Engineering is an exciting career path to follow. Although not everyone has the talent to follow this course of study, it is rewarding for those who do have an innate ability to do so.

As focused as you may be as a student, this path to career satisfaction is also a challenging one. Get all the help you need to survive and thrive through your academic career with these tips while on the road to becoming a successful engineer.

Get the FE Book

As an aspiring engineering student, you will want to prepare properly for the NCEES exams. The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) book will help you to do just that.

Primary engineering topics are addressed in this book, which includes some of the most common equations used in engineering. How these equations are used in systems is also well covered, giving you an edge when writing the exam.

Take Advantage of the Tutoring Center

Leadership Is Not a Title — It Is a Perspective

October 19, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Mike Burns, PE, PgMP, DBIA

Previously, we discussed the importance of your voice as an industry and community integrator: Who Knows What You Know? — Your Voice Matters! Taking this guidance an important step further, I encourage you to move from managing people to empowering leadership from every vantage point, as our ability to deliver complex solutions in a timely manner necessitates an artful migration of diverse perspectives into inclusive solutions.

Infrastructure projects are inherently local and therefore unique, necessitating a patient combination of political savvy and technical expertise to move from policy expectations to project implementation. At each step, we must acknowledge, explore, and address ever-changing stakeholder wants and needs. Our ability to artfully migrate these evolving demands into sustainable, resilient, and equitable community solutions requires dispersed leadership. This is a concept that is at the heart of Progressive Design-Build , which seeks to empower robust communications as leadership ebbs and flows across an evolving set of teams.

5 Keys to Career Clarity for Engineers

October 12, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~Carl Jung

Vision, clarity, making a plan, taking action — trying to achieve these things can be extremely difficult and even anxiety-inducing in the face of great uncertainty.

Sometimes we look to other sources for guidance on what we should do next in our career and lives. Certainly mentors, guides, and coaches can be partners in this process. But in the end, the responsibility for getting clarity and living the life you want is up to you and no one else.

No one understands you better than you understand yourself. Only you have lived through every single one of your life experiences so far.

The person who has the greatest ability to unlock clarity in your life is no one other than you.

If you do as Carl Jung suggests and look inside, you can uncover some amazing truths about what you believe and what you are working to become. Clarity involves not foretelling the future, but seeing clearly our past and present circumstances, and deciding what kind of life we want to create.

Here are 5 Keys to Career Clarity for Engineers

1. Adjust Your Mindset

Being in Charge Is Complex and Comes With High Expectations

October 5, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Manny De La Cruz

To succeed, you must…

Go to school…
Get good grades…
Love math and science…
Get into STEM…
Take AP classes…
Love STEM…
Pick a college…
Go to college…
Love STEM more…
Get a STEM degree, preferably engineering (my opinion)…
Get an internship…
Get a job…
Be a leader/manager…

Does this list sound familiar? For many STEM professionals, and, more specifically, engineers, this list may sound all too familiar. For some, it happens early in life when parents, teachers, or some influential adult begins to tell you what the formula to success is and how engineering fits into that equation. And for other, non-traditional students, like myself, all it takes is one visit to a college campus and there is no shortage of STEM advocates singing the praises of obtaining an engineering degree.

So, you pick engineering, and for the most part, love the journey; let’s face it — statistics for engineers or the third round of calculus can get old at times. As you begin to align yourself with where you want to work, you start to hear the term leadership. To be a strong candidate for an internship spot requires you to have the trifecta: high GPA, skills experience, and leadership potential. For some, “being a leader” has been engrained as the solution to many problems, especially if you are a minority candidate.

Manny, where are you going with this? Great question. So, you want to be a leader/manager? Are you sure you know what you are asking for? It is my opinion that most of us do not really appreciate what we are asking for when we say we want to be a leader/manager. Being in charge is complex and comes with high expectations and many burdens.

What Does Being in Charge Mean?

1. Delivering Results

How to Discover Your Work Style and Personal Value

September 28, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Kyle K. Cheerangie, P.E.

Engineering requires deep and focused thought. There are two primary engineering positions: the Engineer and the Engineering Manager. Each requires a unique work style.

The main performance environment of the Engineer is at their desk in solitude. Engineers, the technical staff, typically require silence in order to focus on their work. The main performance environment of the Engineering Manager is in the group. Engineering Managers, the group leaders, must thrive in leading a group to accomplish the work.

Although their working environments and work types are different, each professional must understand their personal work style.

There Are Several Factors That Make up Your Personal Work Style:

Providing Stellar Client Service: Engage Holistically

September 21, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Mike Burns, PE, PgMP, DBIA

As we commence a discussion about client service, I find myself reflecting on my first Engineering Management Institute (EMI) blog, “Think Big, Be Mindful.” Serving our clients and growing market share should create synergies with our individual goals and personal lives. Again, allowing us to evolve our vision as intentions, setting direction — not prescribing a destination. In this instance, we are going to set intentions by broadening our client perspective. This broader perspective allows us to avoid boundaries that might erode our individual and collective paths to success.

I thoroughly enjoy considering and discussing the complex programs and projects that AEC professionals serve. Like many of you, this enjoyment has allowed me to grow from technical roles into leadership positions with increasing business development (BD) responsibilities, realizing along the way that I am not a natural salesperson. Yet, I benefit from and continue to enjoy working with exceptional marketing, BD, and operations colleagues, who help me to refine my approach to winning work and providing stellar client services. Along the way, one of these wonderful colleagues introduced me to Heidi Gardner’s book.

Mrs. Gardner’s extended title necessitates a deeper read: “Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos.” I would not suggest taking on silos as a path toward exceptional client services. However, I wholeheartedly support her guidance, which promotes zippered relationships, allowing us to avoid cross-selling gaps as we orchestrate collaborative selling objectives. Silos emerge for reasons that we need to understand, especially where Wall Street-driven performance metrics and commercialization of our products create onerous metrics for hit rates, profit, loss, and utilization. We must explore ways to incrementally feed these metrics, concurrently exposing colleagues whose breadth of knowledge and desire to grow create mutually beneficial opportunities — opportunities where our collective experiences provide a premium experience for our clients.

Like any dynamic problem, the complexities associated with artfully incentivizing internal and external clients necessitate an elegant approach. I believe that sustained stellar client services starts with a people-centric program management approach, marrying a comprehensive stakeholder assessment with dynamic communication loops throughout the project delivery lifecycle.

Step 1: Understanding and supporting your internal and external clients

Not-So-Obvious Customers

September 14, 2020 By EMI

This is a guest blog by Manny De La Cruz

Way before I decided to go back to school, I worked. I worked a lot and mostly in jobs that required customer service. I did door-to-door sales, telemarketing, and finally food service. I enjoyed being a server. I was good at it and always had cash in my pocket. I had two goals at that time: pay rent and have fun with the rest.

Through these jobs, I learned about customer service and in those days, how the customer was always right. I won’t claim to have been a poster child for great customer service, since on several occasions the human in me and all that was going on would catch up and a customer might get the short end of the stick. Customer service is something that has become synonymous with hospitality and entertainment. It is easy to spot bad customer service at a drive-through or a check-out line, when you are trying to ring up your own groceries only to be met with an error and no associate around to help you (we have kind of lowered the bar, folks). But what does this have to do with engineering?

Funny you should ask. If you are in an engineering role in outside sales, consulting, or contract engineering, perhaps your customers are pretty obvious. But what about in other engineering roles, like plant support, manufacturing, or research? Perhaps those customers are not as obvious. In reality, regardless of where you work, more than likely there are some internal customers who are relying on your service, and not being aware of who they are could cost you dearly.

Here Are Five Things To Consider When Thinking About the Not-So-Obvious Internal Customers You Work For:

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